Nairobi/Khartoum  - The Sudanese parliament Wednesday said it would not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose prosecutor on Monday requested an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Monday said he had presented the court with evidence showing that al-Bashir committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Sudan's parliament read out the resolution rejecting the court after an extraordinary meeting of the legislature.

The parliament also called on the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League to side with Sudan.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur by five years of ethnic conflict, which began when black Africans took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government.

The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Tuesday began pulling out non-essential staff amid concerns that members of the mission, already a target for deadly attacks, would come under further fire.

UNAMID - which has less than 10,000 of the planned 26,000 military personnel in place - is already struggling to fulfill its peacekeeping role.

Seven peacekeepers died last week in an attack believed to have been carried out by the Janjaweed militia and many in UN circles think the militia could step up raids as the government seeks to punish UNAMID for the ICC's actions. (dpa)